The Idiot

6

I will admit that I don’t understand the intersection of This American Life, Serial and The New York Times. I think This American Life is a radio show, Serial was a podcast series and The New York Times may or may not own one or both. But here, The Idiot is somehow part of the show, the series and The NYT somehow. Sure. Whatever the universe into which this podcast was born, its writer and host, M. Gessen, is an opinion columnist for the paper and a person I’ve seen on TV many times over the years. The thing is, this pod isn’t just a story they researched and reported on, it’s a personal story about a family member and M.’s involvement with him and his… idiocy.

It’s not often that these true crime pods are so personal. This one involves M.’s first cousin, Allen Gessen and his escalating grift and personal failings as a parent, spouse and human being. Which I suppose is an understatement, when his ultimate crime involves a murder-for-hire plot against his own wife. Wrapped up in all this is a bit of an immigrant story — the Gessen family being Russian Jews who escaped the Soviet Union and moved to the U.S. as refugees in the early 80s — that colors a lot of the story. Gives is a bit more character and flavor than if this was just a small group of locals from St. Louis or something. I imagine it’s their personal connection to this case that sold whomever is in charge at whatever entity green-lit this pod. And I get the draw. It’s certainly what initially sucked me in. It’s the sell. It’s the tagline: “This time it’s personal!” Wait, what? Okay, I’m now hearing that was the tagline from the awesomely terrible 1987 sequel, Jaws: The Revenge. But, you get the idea.

The thing is, the personal nature of the crime and M.’s connection to the perpetrator — while giving them unprecedented access and actual memory of the criminal’s past and a direct line to his present — almost creates a situation where the reporter is too close to the subject and creates a self-perpetuating sense of heft and importance to a story that ultimately doesn’t hit as hard as M. thinks it might. Or should. And, yes, a large part of it is M.’s conflicted sense of their cousin and the constant feelings of being gaslit by him, because he’s a sociopath and knows M. will inherently lean toward believing his side of things out of familial obligation (again owing to the family’s difficult journey to this life in America), but some of their waffling doesn’t necessarily serve the interest of a compelling narrative arc. Which I suppose is the risk of any true crime report, but it definitely feels like M. perhaps soft-pedals a little bit of their cousin’s more hideous narcissistic qualities. It’s not as if they don’t call it out, but I feel like a reporter more divorced from the situation might lean in on his truly aberrant personality and inability to take responsibility for his actions.

M. Gessen is a very gifted writer and journalist. They’re deadly serious when needed, but also have that biting sense of ironic, dry Russian wit that certainly bleeds through here, especially when M. talks directly with Allen. It’s incredibly uncomfortable, of course, but they see through him because they know Allen’s schtick. Or do they? Because no matter what an absolute shit he is, M. gives doesn’t necessarily give him the benefit of the doubt, but will hear him out. Unlike M.’s father (Allen’s uncle), who just washes his hands of the dude. Russian to the core. So, what would bring this family to disown their own flesh and blood? Well, the guy they all eye-rolled at did some light scamming and generally used his magnetic personality for ill, somehow landed a woman way above his station (as sleazy, overly-confidant megalomaniacs tend to do), and moved to on to some not-light spousal abuse, kidnapping and murder-for-hire. All of which included an F.B.I. sting, some international crimes and just general idiocy.

Even with all that, the story lacked momentum at times. And the trajectory stalled at others. I think there just wasn’t enough story to maintain. Sure, it would make for a great tale at a dinner party — maybe not at a Gessen family dinner, I guess — but it just felt thin for a four-hour podcast series. And, look, I appreciate the new angle in what has become a pretty tired genre, and it is entertaining at times, but it just couldn’t get that exit velocity going to break through in a new or special way.